Ralph Johns

These iChat (Version 1) pages are coloured Blue and have the iChat (1) icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs from later ones by having the Running Man.  

These pages have sat here since 2008 with no update. In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superceded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

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iChat 1 Pictures

You are In:- iChat >> Versions >> iChat 1 >> iChat 1 Pictures Index >> iChat 1 Preferences Index >> Privacy Preferences

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04 Privacy Preferences

Oct 2008

4 Privacy Preferences

This is the Privacy Preference pane for iChat 1

The Drop Down here has several options that control who sees you as On-Line.

They cover Allow All, Allow Buddy List Only, Block All and Block Specific People. In iChat (1) this Block Specific people allows you access to the main part of this Pane where you can add people by screen name that you do not want to contact you. To them you will always appear as Off-line. If you leave them in your Buddy list they will apeear as Off-Line to you as well.

Unless you use Allow Buddy List Only, removing a name from the Buddy List does not prevent people from contacting you.

Which option you use will depend on how you use iChat. I have lots of people call me to test Video and Audio chats so I require new people to be able to see me. I use the Block Specific People mainly as some people seem to lack social skills and cannot seem to grasp that sometimes Away does mean you are busy with something.

I am going to suggest Adding Buddies next

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Created with JAlbum 4.0.6

©  Ralph Johns. Created October 2008

Revised and Edited Links and Content with corrections and updates Nov 19th 2024.

Information Block

These pages have sat here since 2008 with no update. In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superceded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

This 2024 Edit/Update does make some tense changes to the Contents but mostly it stands as written. The general purpose of the update was to move, as much as possible to HTML 5 compliance where I could.

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 5.x.x

It has a mixture of basic info and problem solving help.

This Information Block will change for Specifics about info on the page on view

About This Page

How to Allow or Block different people from seeing you as On-Line. Being Off-line is the only way to stop people from contacting you as just removing them from the Buddy list does not stop new contacts/Invites appearing.

Compatibility

As mentioned above this has had a major Edit/Update in September 2024 meaning that the Browsers listed below are likely to no longer work.

I have tested in Safari 18.1, Firefox 130.x and 131.0, Vivaldi 6.9.3447.48 and iCab 6.2.3 (All Mac Browsers) I don't have access to a PC let alone multiple browsers to test on.

The original pages worked with Win/IE 5.5 and later (should work in 5.0, but not confirmed), Firefox 2, Safari 3, Opera 9, iCab 3.02 and later, Mac/IE 5, Netscape 6 and later

Old browsers (IE version 4 or earlier, Netscape 4 or earlier) would only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.